1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to facilitate secure device to device (D2D) communications in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) based wireless wide area network (WWAN).
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of a telecommunication standard is Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services, make use of new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. LTE may support direct device-to-device (D2D) (peer-to-peer) communication.
Many devices may be operable in a cellular network. When a first device detects another device, the first device may attempt to communicate directly with the device of interest. Serving mobility management entities (MMEs) may be used to establish a D2D communication link between the devices. No functionality exists within the WWAN that allows the two devices that are attached to an LTE network to perform secure D2D communications where there is no key in common
As the demand for D2D communication increases, there exists a need for methods/apparatuses for supporting secure D2D communications within LTE while minimizing use of WWAN resources.